Heavy
by luckyricochet
Summary: Gou only meant to return Sousuke's coat, but the night ended up lasting longer than she expected. Set after the Eternal Summer special. SouGou.


**A/N: Some obvious liberties have been taken in regards to what are likely to be Samezuka's policies...Reviews are appreciated!**

* * *

Gou rarely went to this part of Samezuka, the dorms. Still, she wasn't sure where else she would find Sousuke. He wasn't one to go out much, and when he did he was with her brother. Neither of them were answering their phones.

She knocked on the door and waited. When no one opened it, Gou scowled. "Come on! Where are they?" she grumbled as she went back outside. Night had fallen. The only light visible was emitted from the street lamps, a glowy, soft sort of blue. As she walked down the block, Gou was glad she at least had the coat for the walk. She was dry now, but a brisk breeze had picked up and the coat's warmth was comforting. She gave a sigh. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep. It had been tiring spending all day at the festival, on top of being drenched with a water gun.

Gou stopped. She had reached the primary courtyard of Samezuka. A few people were lingering about, but most of them were drifting towards behind one of the main buildings. "Where are they all going?" Gou muttered to herself. She fell in step behind one of them, realizing before long that there was a great bonfire burning. And there, resting on a ledge, were the boys, Sousuke on the end. Gou smiled at the sight of him. He looked at ease for once. Shrugging his coat of her, Gou folded it over her arm carefully and approached the boys.

"Sousuke-kun!"

"Gou?" Sousuke stood suddenly. His relaxed expression disappeared, and for a split second Gou regretted having interrupted his peace for such a trivial matter.

"Sousuke-kun, I—" Gou began, only to find her view taken over by a shock of red hair.

"Gou-san!" Momo exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Do you like festivals? I like festivals today I went to the stag-beetle booth and ate three boats of takoyaki after that and my stomach hurt so much that I almost wasn't up for the battle later and I really didn't want to miss that since before I had been a maid—"

"What? You were a maid?" Gou interrupted, trying to hide her laughter but failing.

"Aah!" Momo wrenched his hair with his fists, face pained. "No, forget I said that, Gou-san, I was wearing my swimsuit underneath, I—"

" _Shut up,_ " Rin growled, clamping a hand over the boy's mouth and dragging him away by the neck.

"Let's go over here," Sousuke muttered. They walked over to a spot in between the trees a little way down where most of the others were. "So? What did you want to say?"

"Er—" Gou stared up at him. "Thank you for your coat earlier," she said, holding it out to him.

Sousuke blinked. "Sure." As he made to take it, a gust of wind blew past. Gou turned her face away from it, bracing against the cold. Sousuke smirked a little. "You don't want to hold onto it a little longer?" he teased.

"No—" Gou asserted, stretching her arm out further and her face set. Then she made a face at him. "Well, maybe a little," she conceded, and continued to wrap it around herself again. She seated herself on the ground and looked over towards the fire, a moment later hearing Sousuke join her. A glow of heat could be felt, but it was minimal.

"Did you enjoy the festival?" Sousuke asked.

"Yes!" Gou replied happily. "There was so much to see. I didn't realize how much there would be. Although, what were you doing with those water guns? Nitori-kun as well..."

Sousuke made an irritated noise. "Idiot. He's lucky I had to save my resources."

Gou giggled. "Hey, it's all right." She smiled gently at him. "I'm glad you had fun, Sousuke-kun." At his surprise, she went on, "You've seemed so...subdued lately. More than usual."

"You don't need to worry about me," Sousuke said after a moment. "You just watch out for people like Ai and Momo coming after you."

"They're harmless," Gou said easily. "I'd be a lot more scared if I had to watch out for someone like you. Good thing I don't, though, right?" She nudged him playfully.

"Your brother would take me out before that happens," Sousuke agreed.

Next to the pair, there was some movement. Gou looked over: "Oh—they're leaving, I think."

"You too?" Sousuke stood up.

"I was going to..." Gou stopped when she saw Sousuke's stony expression. He wasn't meeting her gaze again, staring off at some point beyond her. Something within Gou stirred. Sousuke had been so on edge lately. Today he had seemed less stressed than normal. Part of it had to be due to the water gun fight, but Gou had an inkling it was because she was there; Sousuke had always been one to clam up around people he didn't know very well, i.e. the Iwatobi crowd. She hated to imagine his good day ending here on account of her leaving. "...but it's rather late, isn't it? I don't know how happy my mom would be with me going about by myself right now. I'm sure she'd be happier if I slept over."

"...Gou—" Sousuke finally looked at her. The he smiled a little and shook his head. "If you want," he chucked. "I should go and see them off," he sighed, pushing off a tree he had been leaning on. "You can head back now. Rin and I will see you when we get back. Here's the key."

He tossed it to her, which she caught. "Okay. But take it." Gou put the jacket over his arm. He seemed about to interject, but she waved a hand. "I'll be inside in a minute!" And she made her way back to where she had started, thinking the night was not going the way she had planned it.

There was not much room in the dorm, but Gou improvised and covered the floor space from the bed to the desks with extra blankets she found in the closet. She was also quick to change while the boys were out into a T-shirt she took from a drawer. The sleeves came down past her elbows and she felt a bit odd wearing it without permission, but it was more comfortable then the stiff white dress shirt that was her school uniform. Besides, she didn't think Rin or Sousuke would mind that much.

Gou wandered over to one of the desks. Hanging on the wall was a calendar, with various dates circled. Tacked next to it was a training menu scrawled in Rin's handwriting. Gou peered at it. _Samezuka is doing a lot more conditioning than us_ , she thought. Every day day they ran a mile, followed by another strict, twenty minute regimen of cardio warm-up before even getting in the water. Then each person swam an individual medley, during which his specialty stroke had to be within five seconds of his team qualifying time. While they waited, other members were expected to be stretching and reviewing footage from the previous day's swim. Gou sighed. Samezuka was much more balanced the Iwatobi, it appeared, with all their swimmers practicing each of the four strokes daily...but there was no way she would be able to get Haruka to swim anything other than free.

The door burst open and in came Rin and Sousuke. "Gou...what are you doing here?" Rin said, in his grumbling, exasperated tone.

Gou glanced at Sousuke briefly. He probably told Rin on the way back. Returning to her brother, Gou smiled weakly. "Sleepover? I already called home."

Rin rolled his eyes. "All right, whatever. Sousuke, lock the door."

Sousuke nodded, going over to comply. "Good thinking."

"Momo's across the hall," Rin explained. "No way in hell that kid is barging in today...What's this?" He indicated the makeshift mattress on the floor.

"Just my bed for tonight," Gou said.

Rin looked at her, nonplussed. "Nah, I'll take it," he said gruffly after a pause.

"But won't that make you stiff?" Gou protested. "You won't be able to swim as well tomorrow-"

"I can handle it," Rin said. Without saying anything more, he fell onto the pillow and promptly proceeded to roll onto his back and check his phone.

Gou sighed and stepped over him to reach the bed. She didn't like the bunk much, she decided. The half above seemed like it would fall right on top of her, even more so as Sousuke climbed up. A minute later, he was back on the floor and leaving the room.

"Sousuke-kun...?"

"He's just taking a shower," Rin said, not looking away from his phone. Then he cast a sideways glance at Gou and sat up. "All right, Gou, what's this about?"

She colored. "...Sousuke-kun has been so surly lately."

"He's always like that."

"No!" Gou exclaimed. "I mean, more than usual. And today when I saw him, I thought he was a little more happy. I mentioned earlier I would be going home and he just seemed disappointed. I thought it might be nice if I hung around just a little longer."

"Why would that be nice?" Rin asked suspiciously.

"To cheer him up!" Gou maintained. "I didn't want him to go back to being all alone."

Rin frowned. "Hey, I'm here, you know." Gou ignored him. "Well, fine, I don't care," he said. "Just make sure you get home before classes start. I can walk you to the station tomorrow morning."

* * *

Gou stared up at the bottom of the top bunk. The halls were silent; they had been for some time now. The only sound she heard now was the occasional squeak of the bed frame. Sleep had claimed her for a few short hours, but now she couldn't get back to it.

Quietly, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, abandoning its warmth for the night chill. Her toes brushed the blanket she had laid down. Using her phone as illumination, Gou found where her brother was sleeping and carefully tiptoed around him to the door. With delicate precision, she unlocked it with a click and edged it open. The corridor was dimly lit, but she still had to squint. She sidled into the hall swiftly, taking care to prevent as much of the light from entering the room as possible.

For a moment she stood in the hall. As it was to be expected at three in the morning, the place was empty. She would have liked to stand there a little longer, but then she remembered where she was checked herself. Down to the bathroom she went, with some trepidation at finding a random Samezuka boy also making a nighttime excursion, though luckily there wasn't anyone else to be found. Gou splashed a little water on her face and blinked at herself slowly in the mirror, taking in her tired eyes and bedraggled hair. Then, in the back, she saw something being reflected. Partially obscured but definitely there was a small aerosol bottle, sitting in a shelf that was labeled _Yamazaki_. Gou looked around. She was still alone, so she picked the bottle up.

It was a pain reliever. She shook it a little, then considered its weight. _He's used so much,_ she realized sadly. Gou's heart sank, thinking back to regionals. It had been the first time she had ever seen him stumble. All at once feeling upset, she replaced the bottle and went back to the dorm.

"Gou." The voice greeted her the second she closed the door again.

She gasped. In the dark, Gou saw a dark figure above. It moved a little. "Where were you?"

Gou remembered to lock the door before moving close to the bed frame and answering, "Only down to the bathroom, Sousuke-kun." She could see him a little better now, his light-colored eyes on her. He was sitting at the foot of his bed, leaning forward slightly.

"Can't sleep?"

"No," Gou admitted. "I have a hard time away from home."

"Ah, that's right," Sousuke agreed. "I remember that." He appraised her. "Why did you offer to stay, then? If you knew you would have trouble sleeping."

Without meaning to, Gou looked to his shoulder. She said nothing, she saw Sousuke's eyes narrow. "Ah. Not you too."

"I—I just can't bear it. The idea of you not swimming anymore. And I know you say you're fine, but I know it must hurt—I can't stand it. You're one of the most important people in my life, and if I can be there for you, I want to be!"

"You and your brother are just like each other," Sousuke said at last. In the dark, Gou saw him smile a little. Just the sight of it broke her. She didn't know how many times wishing he would smile for once-and the one time he finally did, it was in the face of losing what had been his life for nearly eighteen years.

"You don't need to worry about me, Gou," he said for the second time that night. "The fact that you care means a lot to me, it does. But I don't want you to inconvenience yourself just for me. You shouldn't be the one bearing my burdens. It's not fair."

"Sousuke-kun..." Gou felt his gaze on her in the dark. Impulsively, she took a few more steps until she was right next to the bed. He was still there, leaning over just so.

"Try to get some sleep, Gou." She felt his hand on her shoulder. It was heavy, but a good heavy: sturdy, strong, and reliable. She looked up, but Sousuke had already retreated. She remained there a second longer, thinking how odd it was that the most intimidating looking people were also the most gentle, until she climbed back into her own bed. She tilted her head upward to sneak a peek out the window: a sliver of the moon was visible. As light a silver as Sousuke's eyes were teal, Gou thought as she closed her own.


End file.
